[chris]

I was checking out the Lee's Palace website (Lee's is a live music club in Toronto - http://www.leespalace.com) and noticed a band that goes by the name of "The Men They Couldn't Hang" (http://www.tmtch.net) who played there in 1986. So did The Hip!

I wonder if they are who Gord refers to in the song, or is he just referring to men they couldn't hang in general? cratch:

Between the Lee's Palace site, and The Horseshoe site there are a lot of Hip references.


Work bores me - so I surf the net.

[mark]

good call.

[farmerdan]

yeah i remember seeing a cd in my guitar class by that band.

i cant quite remember but i think that they had a song name that was made reference to in bobcaygeon

it was 5 years ago so i might not be 100% correct

[Sabina]

I'd guess one of them nicked it from the other...seems too coincidental.

[DrDada]

Very interesting about The Hip playing with The Men They Couldn't Hang in Toronto in 1986.

I have all the 1980s albums from TMTCH - on vinyl, of course! - so was very interested to hear them referenced in Bobcaygeon.

The Toronto link makes sense - I could never figure out why The Hip would reference such a 'minor' band.

I still wonder, however, about the lyrics that say: "and their voices rang with that aryan twang".

Is the 'aryan twang' some sort of critical comment or just a statement of fact?

Colin

[cferneyh]

Work bores me - so I surf the net.

Sounds verrrrrrrrrry familiar. :thumb: :lol:

[scottitude]

I got hip the TMTCH back in '87 when I got hip to The Hip. They're actually pretty good, a UK band that sings about a variety of topics including the American west...goldrush-era American west. One of my faves was "Diamonds, Gold, and Fur" (from the LP Silvertown) about an average guy smitten with a woman of "questionable" morals. To win her, he turns to life of crime, gets caught and incarcerated. She, of course, lives the life of luxury with his money, wearing diamonds, gold, and fur while "inside he hears stories of - the poor men and his wife".

I've always believed there was a connection. I emailed The Hip with the question but got no response, so I emailed TMTCH asking them about it. I got a reply from their webmaster who found my inquiry curious; as I recall, he had no knowledge of any connection but several years back an acquaintance in Canada sent him an odd looking CD with all kinds of dials & switches & guages on the cover...

I'll look for his reply when I get home and post it if I still have it.

In other threads about the Bobcaygeon video, it's apparent that most people associate the term with a fascism of sorts or some type of symbolism so I've never brought it up here.

[hotmetal401]

I've never actually looked at the floor at Lee's -- does it have a checkerboard floor?

This is really cool Chris, good work!

Cheers

Pat

[tommygunn]

It's interesting that Gord would refer to that group in the song.

But, I was always of the understanding that the real reference to "The Men They Couldn't Hang" and the "riot" concerns the group of Aryan Neo-Nazis who are known as The Heritage Front.
In the early 1990's, there were no laws at the time to prevent the Heritage Front from propagating their hate the way they did.
Anti-racist supporters clashed with Heritage Front members a few times, resulting in riots, yet RCMP officers had no choice but to defend and protect the Heritage Front members.. due to the aforementioned state of Canadian law at the time. :?

It's evident both in the lyrics and in the video (the Native woman..) that the Mountie's conscience affects him greatly since he has to defend the racists.

More info here...
http://www.nizkor.com/hweb/orgs/canadian...erges.html

[cferneyh]

A Men They Couldn't Hang bootleg is available here:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.easytree.org/torrents-details.php?id=18419">http://www.easytree.org/torrents-details.php?id=18419</a><!-- m -->

[scottitude]

That's too cool. I'll be all over it as soon as I get home from work. Thanks for the heads-up. :thumb:

~Scott

[Stephen Dame]

It's interesting that Gord would refer to that group in the song.

But, I was always of the understanding that the real reference to "The Men They Couldn't Hang" and the "riot" concerns the group of Aryan Neo-Nazis who are known as The Heritage Front.
In the early 1990's, there were no laws at the time to prevent the Heritage Front from propagating their hate the way they did.
Anti-racist supporters clashed with Heritage Front members a few times, resulting in riots, yet RCMP officers had no choice but to defend and protect the Heritage Front members.. due to the aforementioned state of Canadian law at the time. :?

It's evident both in the lyrics and in the video (the Native woman..) that the Mountie's conscience affects him greatly since he has to defend the racists.

More info here...
http://www.nizkor.com/hweb/orgs/canadian...erges.html

"Hearts of Darkness" is a very good and creepy as hell look at the Heritage Front, their band, and the events of this time.

P.S. The woman in the video is Asian I believe.